FSA Says Not Seeking to Fight Hizbullah but Will Respond if Attacked

The rebel Free Syrian Army stated on Wednesday that it is not seeking to start a military confrontation with Hizbullah on the Lebanese border, stressing however, that it will respond to any attack by the party.

"I have personally asked President Michel Suleiman to intervene and prevent Hizbullah from bombing our locations,” FSA chief of staff General Selim Idriss revealed during an interview on Future television.

He expressed: “We are at war with a criminal regime backed by Iran and Russia and we do not want to fight Hizbullah”.

"We urged our fighters near (the border village of) Qusayr to refrain from confronting the party,” he revealed, noting that “they will however respond with all force if attacked”.

"You will be exposed to proof that Hizbullah is actually targeting FSA locations from Lebanon,” he announced.

The FSA threatened on February 20, 2013, to shell HA military bases in Lebanon after accusing it of firing across the border into territory it controls.

General Idriss had told Agence France Presse that Hizbullah had shelled villages around Qusayr, which is located in the central Syrian province of Homs, from the border village of Zeita, a stronghold of the party in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour denied reports saying that HA fighters are engaged in border battles, noting that the residents of those towns are “defending” themselves against attacks launched by armed gangs.

The FSA chief denied that the unit which kidnapped the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz is a part of the FSA, or that it follows its commands.

Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo province in May 2012 as they were making their way back to Lebanon by land from pilgrimage in Iran.

Two of them have since been released, while the rest remain held in Aazaz.

The families of the pilgrims had frequently held Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar responsible for their ongoing abduction, while saying that the government had not exerted enough efforts to ensure their release.

Addressing the Lebanese people, Idriss vowed not to meddle in the country's internal politics in the future.

"We ask the Lebanese to neutralize themselves from Syria's conflict if they are not willing to help the rebels,” he said.